Nerd time!

We just started our new Changeling: The Dreaming game yesterday. Jeremy is running it, and there are nine players, which means a) the living room is very full, and b) there's always something crazy happening. :) We have 3 Sluagh, 2 Trolls, 2 Nockers, and 2 Sidhe in the game. Six of the characters are high school students, ranging from age 11-17, and the other three characters are teachers at the school.

Because Jeremy often blends a couple of systems together for the game, we spent most of our time yesterday working on the setting, working out the details of the school, and creating crossover Aspects, a la The Dresden Files RPG (and other games that also used the FATE system). Unsurprisingly for this group of friends, we asked for creepy, creepy, and turn up the creepy some more, with a side helping of creepy. We've got catacombs, secret passages, and a mysterious benefactor, all for our SUPER haunted school.

I was among the three characters who hadn't undergone the Chrysallis yet, but thanks to my character's Mentor, she knew what was coming and was ready for it. So after we took down a troll and chased some wolf-men away, she was doing a happy dance and texted her dad to say "Yay! Yay! Happy day!" :)

And now she gets to deal with all of the crazy that I packed into her background. :)

Movie review: Don Juan de Marco

So in pursuit of all things Johnny Depp (a constant, life-long pursuit), I finally watched Don Juan de Marco last night, and loved it. Yes, the loving it was mainly about Johnny Depp being in it, but the story is cute too. And of course, being the geeks that we are, Jeremy and I turned it into a movie about Changeling, because that just fit. :) (For the Changeling fans: Marlon Brando as a Grump Boggan who has entered Autumn, with Johnny Depp's character trying to pull him back from it. :) )

Generally speaking, it's not the sort of movie I might normally watch. It is sort of a chick flick, made doubly so with Johnny Depp being SOOOOOO cute in this movie. The scenes where he's wearing eye makeup to make him look like a woman are amazing. :) (His jawline ruins any hopes and dreams he may have had of being a drag queen, however.)

And I know that Marlon Brando is considered a great actor and such, but seriously... could the man EVER enunciate? In his life?

Bonus points for the part of the movie where they were singing the Bryan Adams movie theme in Spanish. Or some close facsimile of it, since I don't know Spanish. I just knew the melody.

It's November!

Gah! Where has this year gone? By the end of this month, we will have been in Seattle for 6 months already, and I'll have been at my job for 6 months as well! That's just craziness!

Interestingly enough, 2 years ago today was the day I flew back to St. Louis after my first visit to Seattle. Ah, memories. :)

I'm heading out in about half an hour to go down to Stir, where I will be for the next 5+ hours. I left home when it was still dark this morning, and I don't go home till well after dark tonight. *sigh*

Aside from all the writing I need to do this weekend, though, I think it's gonna be a nice, laid back weekend. There isn't anywhere that I have to be the whole time, just Changeling on Saturday (which doesn't feel like an obligation of any sort). :)

And I'm back...

So a quick weekend recap:
1) Craft fair was very slow, though I did enjoy getting to chat with Anandi all day, and thanks to her, I have now perfected my coffee cup cozy pattern. Hurrah! :)
2) Changeling game that night was somewhat slow, because of the huge mass combat, but I think my character has moved from "another Eshu" to "hey, she's useful." This is an important thing when it comes to a game like this one. :)
3) Got my display all set up for the show at Stir on Thursday, and I got to pick up my mannequin. Though I've been flip-flopping on the name a bit, I think I've decided now. Everyone, meet Nadia. :)








I still need to do a little work on her makeup, and she totally needs a wig, because right now, she just looks like some extremely pale gypsy boho chick. :) Jerome does not like her, and doesn't know why she needs a name. He also tells me that she sometimes moves when I'm not looking. I think he's fibbing. :)

So yeah, she's banished to the corner behind the bookcase at the moment, but I like how she looks there. She looks like she's just casually leaning up against the bookcase, waiting for something. She's so aloof. ;)

Surprisingly busy weekend, for feeling like I didn't really do a lot. I suspect that I really did, I just always feel like I didn't do much. Jerome worked for the majority of the weekend, so I sat around at the apartment quite a bit. :)

But I made a bunch of new cards made to list on Etsy, and I got some clothes listed on eBay. Not much writing mixed in there, because I just couldn't make myself sit down and write. I need to, though, because I've still got a few articles to write for Shop Etsy. Once those are done, I need to start scouting for more folks who are interested in having profiles done of their shops. Shouldn't be too hard, most Etsy sellers love publicity. :)

I've discovered a couple of gaming related things over the weekend. One is that it's much more fun to be an Eshu when you're out and about, getting into trouble with other Eshu. :) (I'm also anxiously awaiting my background XP for that character, so that I can buy some more abilities and such, because I'm kinda sad and pathetic right now. :) )

The second realization is that I really don't like the Camarilla, at least not when it is run correctly in a large LARP setting. It's very much anti-Democratic sensibilities (speaking in terms of the government system, not the political party). The little guys can't do a damn thing. :(

That being said, I think I'm gonna switch over to the Werewolf game that runs at the same time as the Camarilla game. Jerome is undecided at the moment if he wants to join me there, switch characters in the Cam game, or stick it out with his Malkavian. I told him to do what he wants to do in this case, because though I love gaming with him, our characters tend to not really get along, so it's not so much gaming with each other as gaming near each other. :)

Not sure what's going on this week, but next Monday is Labor Day, so hurrah upcoming long weekend! :)
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Ugh... Friday, and I'm already bored type person. I finished the big project that I was working on yesterday afternoon, and thus I have pretty much nothing on my plate for today. Well, there's some filing to do, which I'll get to in a bit, I suppose. :)

Tonight, we get to run a few errands, and maybe I'll get to write my background for my Vampire character. Tomorrow, I need to write some more articles for Shop Etsy, and then I've got Changeling and Vampire in the evening. Sunday should be mostly laid back, as per the usual. I'm mostly just hoping that if it does rain on Saturday again, that it won't be as cold, or that I'll be better dressed for it. Last Sunday I was all kinds of miserable with a bit of a cold. Luckily, it went away pretty quickly. :)

Well, at least it looks like it will be a lovely day today. I just wish there was a park where Jerome and I could have lunch on Fridays. He only gets half an hour for lunch on Fridays, so I will be taking him his lunch at his school, but being able to meet at a park half way would be so much nicer when it's all lovely out. :)
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Well, my Changeling game has already come and gone. One of my players is going home this summer, and I'd rather not run it for just the remaining two players. Sure, that could be fun, but I really wanted more like 4-5 players for this game. Maybe in the fall, if people have a lighter class load...

I'm really looking forward to this week being over! Work has been exceptionally hectic, leaving me with very little time to even think straight. Luckily, it looks like this weekend will be plenty of not having to think about much of anything. And all I really have to do between now and then is work, find a present for my little sister's bridal shower, and pack for the weekend. That's almost manageable. I'm so glad it's Wednesday already!

So I got the Sims Vacation the other day, only to realize that my computer was sadly lacking in RAM. But I managed to figure out how to remedy that situation (it's trickier with a laptop, if you've never done it before), and now my computer goes FAST. The problem in all of this is that now that the Sims moves at a decent clip, I'm far more interested in playing it than getting things done.

I'm coming very close to posting my "to do" list here, and then telling the world when I actually accomplish something. The benefit I could see in doing this is that maybe then some of my loyal readers (I think I have some of those!) will get on my case about what I should be doing with my free time. Unfortunately, I can't really think much beyond the stories that I want to write, and the need to work on The Beyond at the moment. I'm doing decently well with developing The Beyond mostly on the fly, at least for the time being. I will eventually need to work on some more of that, however, because things aren't going to stay the same forever... >:)

Other than that, I'm going to get to see The Scorpion King this weekend! I know I wasn't the only one who was disappointed by The Rock's performance in The Mummy Returns, but from everything I've seen of the new previews, it looks like he's done much better with this one. So for now, I will blame his approximately 5 minutes of screen time in The Mummy Returns, which is far too small to get an accurate assessment of his acting talent.

Well, I was reminded this weekend both why I love being a LARP ST, and why I got out of that business. Don't get me wrong, I had an absolute BLAST at the Garou game on Saturday night, despite the extreme cold (how can it be in the 30s in April?!?!)... but at the same time, I'm remembering how much time and energy an ST has to exert to make a game run smoothly and for everyone to have a ton of fun. It's certainly no picnic! But things are going very well already, and once I get through the inital crush of approving, recording, and updating the characters, I'll be much less busy! Then again, as Macke pointed out, I'm a little bit obsessive when it comes to making sure the characters are all recorded and kosher... yet another reason why the guys are happy that I'm on staff! :)

Tonight is the second installment of The Beyond, which is going to be a lot of fun. Like the Old Man said, Changeling is definitely my kind of game... and being able to throw my own little twist into the game makes things very amusing! Guess I better finish re-writing the little bit of prophecy that the old Eshu lady gave the PCs last week... that's the problem of coming up with stuff on the fly, and not writing it down... :)

Egyptian Campaign is this weekend, down here in C-dale. I got all of my games to the "done except for the last minute stuff" point last night. I'm only running four games this year: Vampire, Dark Ages, Exalted, and Adventure. I'm particularly looking forward to the Adventure game. I've never played or run it before, but the system is the basic White Wolf system, and the powers are pretty simple to deal with. And the setting is just way too much fun... basically take The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and/or any of the Indiana Jones movies, and you've got the setting for Adventure! :) Any rate, once the convention is over, I'll have more free time... free time good! :)

It's very bare bones at the moment, but here's the start of the Changeling game stuff... The Beyond... more to come soon, I promise! :)

At long last (because I'm a slacker, not because he is), I've got some new fiction from Seth. Good stuff! As a warning, however this story continues in the "R-rated" tradition of the Sabbat related fiction that I've posted already! That's why I don't link to it directly from my main page... :)

I also added another story of mine. No, it's not the Morgan story that I've been promising everyone, but rather a story that I wrote for Wintercastle, back when I had the time to play in that game. It's short, but I was pleased with the way it turned out, so I included it here! :) And, as a side note, the new Morgan story is probably never going to get written. The inspiration for it has slipped away, and it doesn't suit the new(ish) direction that she's going... but that new(ish) direction is probably going to spawn something quite interesting, which might just turn into a story.

I'm also still tossing around a couple of ideas for Garou stories. One of them, though, has the potential to get quite long... but the nice thing about it is that it's a recap of an old chronicle that I played in... so it's mainly just a matter of remembering how things went... and since the Old Man played in that chronicle as well, I should have some help with the remembering part... assuming that his memory is still intact... ;)

And I'm thinking that we're finally going to start my Changeling chronicle (still unnamed at the moment, though Seth and the SonofaBritsch had such clever ideas...) tonight. I had a flash of inspiration the other day, which I really can't say a whole lot about at the moment... but suffice it to say that my players are in for a VERY interesting ride... muhahahah... >:)

Before you ask, no, I don't know what happened to my comments section... I'm thinking the page that hosts it is having problems... it should come back eventually! :)

At any rate, really, really long weekend, but lots of fun! :) Changeling was Friday night. I haven't quite found my niche in the game just yet, but I'm working on it. Hopefully there will be more Friday games, so that I'm able to do so... :)

Saturday, we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off... Laumeier Sculpture Park, dinner, mall, Buttmagic's birthday party, and Blade II. I was not as impressed with Blade II as I would have liked to have been, but it was still a decent movie. And at any rate, the music rocked! :) And it was a good day, despite all the running around... I actually got to talk to Megan for a while, as well as hang out with some of my friends!

Sunday was Broken Sword, and I had a TON of fun at that game! Too bad that most of my pack had to miss my character finally being appointed as Bishop! There was a good quote from Lufcy at that game, and if I can find the paper I scribbled it on, it will go up on the webpage eventually... :)

Monday was wrestling night (yeah, I'm a junkie!), with the draft that decided which superstars went to which show. This was a major issue in our house, because we don't get UPN, which is where Smackdown, the Thursday night show, is aired. So basically, whoever got sent to Smackdown was being exiled from our lives... well, my original favorite wrestler, Edge, is one of the exiled... :( But, on the up side, the Hardy Boyz, Lita, and RVD all ended up on Raw... so I can't complain too much! :)

I suppose I should mention that I'm going to be one of the STs for Fury of the Forsaken, which is the summertime Marissa Garou LARP. That's right, the LARP Marm is back in the ST business... ;) At any rate, we had a meeting for that last night, and lots of very kewl stuff is in the works. So if you're interested in that game, check out the webpage, or E-mail the staff at MarissaRage@yahoogroups.com. Trust me, it's gonna be a blast! :)

It's been really hectic at work this week, which cuts down on my prime blogging time... :) Hopefully by the time I leave today, however, the book that I've been working on for what seems like an eternity will be off my desk, and I won't have to worry about it ever again... or at least for a week or so... :)

I got my players to make their characters for my Changeling-esque game last night. We've got a Nocker and a Satyr so far, with a possible third (probably Eshu) to come. I like it so far, and I keep coming up with more kewl ideas about why certain things are the way that they are... now, I just need a name for the chronicle... and while "The Pimp Daddy Skillet Experience" is certainly appealing as a chronicle name, I don't think I'm gonna go with that... just preempting your suggestion, Seth... :)

In other really good news, I get to play in the Changeling LARP this Friday, because the nice STs decided to have game on a Friday! Now if I can only convince them to have it on 2nd and 4th Fridays all the time, I'll actually get to play on a regular basis! :)

This does mean, however, that I don't get to see Blade II on opening night... ah well, I think I'll live. We might get a bunch of people together to see it Saturday or Sunday during the day instead... I am kinda leery about going to see it, cuz I'm not sure if it will be good or not. I liked the first Blade so much, I'm just afraid of what they might do in this second one... so maybe I'll wait and hear some reviews from other people who like Vampire stuff... :)

Okay, okay, okay... I'll work on the Morgan story... since I finally figured out how to make it work right! :) It should be interesting... at the moment, there are two possible endings to it... and I haven't decided which one I should use just yet... :)

But, of course, that will be after I finish getting stuff ready for my Changeling chronicle. Well, I suppose it could be called a Changeling-related chronicle. I'm using most of the game mechanics from the Changeling system, with a good chunk of the background story left intact. However, I'm setting my game in "London Below," which is a part of London that Neil Gaiman invented in his book, Neverwhere, which was also a BBC miniseries. There are parts of the mechanics that simply won't work in this alternate setting, and the background story has been altered and supplemented with the ideas from the book and miniseries. It's certainly going to be interesting!